Lexington Law review: What are the pros and cons?

When it comes to your finances, few things are as important as managing your credit. But what should you do if your credit is already destroyed? Last year, millions of customers turn to Lexington Law to repair their credit. Some came away with a clean credit report. Other customers felt they got scammed? What’s the difference, and what can you expect from Lexington Law? We give you an in depth review of what to expect from Lexington Law Credit Repair.

What does Lexington Law do?

Lexington Law is a credit repair company. That means that they focus on removing negative information from your credit report. Removing negative information isn’t the best way to improve your credit score. Before you enlist Lexington Law, focus on paying current account on time. You should only turn to Lexington Law after you have good credit behavior in place.

If you have good credit behavior, why would you enlist Lexington Law? Many people turn to them to clean up an old credit mess or to help resolve issues related to identity theft.

Some credit repair companies try to “fix” your credit by jamming it at the credit bureaus. This means they dispute every item on your credit report. This is effective in the short term, but fixes nothing in the long term. Lexington Law doesn’t operate that way.

Everything Lexington Law does is legal. They work to remove unfair or questionable information from you credit report. Most of their work includes writing letters to remove negative information.

Lexington Law is very clear that this is work that you could do this work if you wanted to. However, in certain circumstances we still recommend working with Lexington Law. Their knowledge of credit law gives them an advantage when removing negative information.

This is how a typical relationship with Lexington Law works.

Credit Consultation

The relationship with Lexington Law starts with a credit consultation. This costs between $99.95 to $119.95. They bill the fee 5-15 days after you start service with Lexington Law. Lexington Law uses some confusing language surrounding these consultations.

On their website, Lexington Law refers to these as free or no obligation. If you choose not to enlist Lexington Law, that is true. However, you will pay a fee for the consultation if you choose to enlist Lexington Law’s services. The cost ranges from $99.95-$199.95 depending on the plan you choose.

During the initial consultation, a representative will pull your credit report from TransUnion. If you don’t have a free credit report available, Lexington Law will charge $14.99.

The representative will talk to you about your credit report. During the conversation you can highlight areas of concern. Representatives will ask you which items you don’t recognize, and which may be duplicates. They may request documentation that will help your case.

The credit consultations tend to focus on negative information. However, Lexington Law offers some proactive advice to higher paying customers. Concord Premier and PremierPlus customers receive credit score analysis. This sounds great, but you can get these services for free through Credit Karma or Quizzle.

Once you complete the credit consultation, Lexington Law’s real work starts.

Write Letters to Credit Bureaus

Lexington Law will start by challenging the negative information at the credit bureaus. This involves writing letters that contest negative items. Negative items could include anything from late payments to bankruptcies. The credit bureaus have 30 days to respond to the challenges. Lexington Law will also contest credit inquiries for higher paying customers.

If the information on your credit report isn’t accurate, the credit bureau will remove it.

This isn’t always the most effective way to dispute negative information. After all, the credit bureaus “investigate” by asking creditors to confirm the information. The credit bureaus will drop the matter unless Lexington Law pushes them to investigate further.

Luckily, Lexington Law works outside of the credit bureau system too.

Write Validation Letters to Creditors

Lexington Law often sends certified letters to your creditors. The letters give creditors 30 days to validate a certain debt. Creditors often fail to substantiate the debt. This means that Lexington Law can work with the credit bureaus to remove the information.

Lexington Law doesn’t use the pay for delete strategy that we often advocate. Instead, they focus on debt validation letters. Many creditors ignore these letters. This means that negative information goes unsubstantiated. In those cases, credit bureaus will remove the item from your credit report.

Regular contact with your representative

A representative from Lexington Law will keep you up to date with all the progress that they make. If you have concerns, you can always call to discuss your case.

Most customers find that Lexington Law succeeds in removing many negative items in the first few months of service. After that, they aren’t as successful. At that point, most customers cancel the service.

What does Lexington Law promise?

Specifically, they say, “Lexington Law fights for every client’s legal right to a fair and accurate credit profile.”

Lexington Law has many negative reviews on the Better Business Bureau website. Most of the reviews share a common theme. After a certain point, Lexington Law stopped getting results.

If you choose to enlist Lexington Law, you should expect that. They will fight to remove negative information. However, after a few months of work, Lexington Law won’t be as effective anymore. Most people should stop working with Lexington Law after 4-6 months. They won’t get better results after that time.

How do their prices compare?

Lexington Law’s credit repair services are somewhat higher than most other online credit repair companies. We compared credit repair prices and services here. They justify the higher fees by explaining that Lexington Law is founded by and operated by real lawyers.

In most cases, a real lawyer won’t work your case. Instead a trained paralegal or credit repair specialist will work on your behalf. Still, the firm has the full force of consumer law behind them. It is an important point of differentiation.

Lexington Law has three tiers of service. Most people will get the results they want from the lowest service law. The first level, Concord Standard, only offers bureau challenges and creditor intervention. This is what most people need.

At the Premier level and higher you’ll get inquiry assistance. This means that Lexington Law will dispute hard credit inquiries on your credit report. After 3-4 months, credit inquiries don’t drag down your credit score. Don’t pay for this service, it won’t help you. Higher levels also give you access to credit score analysis and reporting tools. You can get these same tools for free from Credit Karma.

The highest level, PremierPlus, offers help writing cease and desist letters to abusive creditors. As a consumer, you’re protected by the fair debt collection practices act. The Federal Trade Commission outlines unacceptable behaviors for debt collectors. Even if you have debt in collections, you have rights. Lexington Law can help you enforce the rights. However, it’s probably not worth an additional $40 per month.

The Consumer Federal Protection Bureau has five letters that you can send to debt collectors. These letters will force creditors to comply with the law. If they don’t, you can take legal action against them. The CFPB exists to help consumers suffering from negative interactions with debt collectors.

Service Level

Consultation Cost
(billed 5-15 days after first service is rendered)

Ongoing monthly cost
(billed at the end of the month. Final month service is prorated)

Can you repair your credit on your own?

Many people will benefit from the Concord Standard program at Lexington Law. But you can repair your credit on your own. In fact, we encourage you to try fixing your credit before you pay for someone else to do it.

The most important thing you can do to fix your credit is to pay your current account balances on time each month. Take care of that first.

We have a complete guide to fixing your credit fast. This outlines a step by step process that you can follow to build positive credit.

We also have important resources that can help you remove negative information on your own.